Lauren Alexandra Siciliano, daughter of Linda Jean and Robert Siciliano of Manalapan, has been awarded the 2004 R. Percy Alden Memorial Prize as the outstanding junior in the study of French at Princeton University, where she will enter her senior year in the fall.
A French and Italian major, she spent the first semester of her junior year studying in Paris at Institute d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (“Sciences Po”) and received a fellowship from Princeton to participate in the university’s summer 2003 Program for Italian Studies in Macerata, Italy. She recently was selected as undergraduate delegate to the Princeton University Department of French and Italian Advisory Committee and has been asked to serve as a peer adviser to members of the incoming freshman class.
The recipient of the 2001-02 Princeton University Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence, created to recognize outstanding academic achievement on the part of university freshmen and sophomores, Siciliano also was selected for inclusion in the 2001-02 edition of “The National Dean’s List.” She is completing a summer internship at the Princeton University Cotsen Children’s Library, where she is serving as assistant outreach coordinator, leading story hours in French and conducting a weeklong environmental program titled “A Field Guide to Princeton.”
Siciliano is a 2001 graduate of the International Studies Specialized Learning Center at Freehold Township High School.
The Ranney School, Tinton Falls, presented local graduates with President’s Academic Excellence awards at the school’s commencement exercises. The award honors students who have achieved a grade point average of 90 or higher, and have reached the 85th percentile on standardized achievement tests (SAT or ACT) in math or reading.
The students from the local area who received the award are Lauren Betesh, Shrewsbury; Mona Elsayed, Tinton Falls; Adam Haratz, Wayside section of Ocean Township; Catherine Knopf and Nina Sussman, both Rumson; Michelle Alim Leland, Red Bank; Adam Metzger, Ocean; and Laura Rekedal, Little Silver. Additionally, Elsayed was named a National Merit finalist and received a scholarship through the AT&T Academic Awards Program, Metzger was named a 2004 Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar and a National Merit finalist, Rekedal was named a national merit commended student, and Sussman received the Walter F. Blaine Scholarship.